Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Corning Classic Preview/Predictions/Pairings

With the weather forecast surprisingly awesome for NY's Southern Tier in late May, look for lots of fireworks during the finalplaying of the CorningClassic. The last 5 holes of the front side, which I ever-so-cleverly dubbed "birdie alley" last year, may well be the key to victory, although it was clutch performances on the back 9 on Sunday that lifted Leta Lindley and Jeong Jang ahead of the field and into a playoff that Lindley won. We'll see if any of the past champions can join Rosie Jones and Betsy King as the only 2-time winners in the 31-year history of the event. I can understand why Annika won't be there to give it a try, and why Lindley can't, but why not Young Kim and Juli Inkster? For that matter, where are Lorena Ochoa and Karrie Webb? Come on, people--there's even a week off before the LPGA returns to action at the State Farm!

Despite these glaring absences, the field is packed. As I emphasized in last year's preview, and as Hound Dog concurs, the course favors the precision players on tour--at least those who can handle its undulating greens. So with my last 2 weeks of PakPicking getting me nowhere, I'm going with my gut this week:

As for the pairings, I find them to be remarkably well-balanced. You can go off any of the prime-time quadrants and follow multiple players with a great chance to win this week. Probably the strongest of them is going off the back in the morning:

Start Time: 8:40 AM Ya Ni Tseng Seon Hwa Lee Wendy Ward

Start Time: 8:50 AM Helen Alfredsson Brittany Lang In-Kyung Kim

Start Time: 9:00 AM Meaghan Francella Brittany Lincicome Song-Hee Kim

Start Time: 9:10 AM Suzann Pettersen Lindsey Wright Morgan Pressel

Start Time: 9:20 AM Paula Creamer Ji-Yai Shin Na Yeon Choi

Unless of course you think those going off the front in the afternoon are more impressive:

Start Time: 12:10 PM Laura Davies Eun-Hee Ji Shanshan Feng

Start Time: 12:20 PM Rachel Hetherington Teresa Lu Alena Sharp

Start Time: 12:30 PM Christina Kim Vicky Hurst Natalie Gulbis

Start Time: 12:40 PM Cristie Kerr Angela Stanford Ji Young Oh

Start Time: 12:50 PM Kristy McPherson Michelle Wie Laura Diaz

Sure, there are a few more players who have been struggling in this quadrant, but how could you not be bowled over by the 12:30 group? I'm sure Golf Channel will be, if they can spare any cameras away from the 12:50 one!

That leaves the Japanese, Korean, and European media to get psyched for the morning front-side pairings:

Start Time: 8:40 AM Lorie Kane Liselotte Neumann Maria Hjorth

Start Time: 8:50 AM Louise Friberg Hee Young Park Silvia Cavalleri

Start Time: 9:00 AM Carin Koch Momoko Ueda Pat Hurst

Start Time: 9:10 AM Inbee Park Meena Lee Ai Miyazato

Start Time: 9:20 AM Jee Young Lee Hee-Won Han Se Ri Pak

If only Jeong Jang's wrist were fully healed from surgery, I'm sure she would have been in that 9:20 pairing. The Japanese media, in particular, had better be in good shape, as their other 2 countrywomen on tour are going off the back in the afternoon. And Shiho Oyama even gets in the prime-time pairings:

Start Time: 12:10 PM Nicole Castrale Brandie Burton Mi Hyun Kim

Start Time: 12:20 PM Stacy Prammanasudh Katherine Hull Angela Park

Start Time: 12:30 PM Sophie Gustafson Il Mi Chung Jimin Kang

Start Time: 12:40 PM Candie Kung Meg Mallon Louise Stahle

Start Time: 12:50 PM Sun Young Yoo Michele Redman Shiho Oyama

And Mika Miyazato's going off right after Oyama. Other notables include LET wunderkind/LPGA slow-starter Amy Yang (8:10 am off #1), comeback-trailer Aree Song (8:20 am off #10), New Yorker Moira Dunn (8:30 am off #1), sponsor exemption Anna Nordqvist (8:30 am off #10, cruel to someone who just jetted over from the Swiss Alps and a top 10 on the LET!), and rookie M.J. Hur (1:30 pm off #1, coming off her best-ever LPGA finish last week), among many others.

The Constructivist family heads off to Japan this Friday morning--we'll be back just in time for the Wegmans Featuring Cheyenne Woods, which I hope to see in person, if jet lag (and the Full Metal Archivist) permits. We'll see how our summer vacation (and my summer writing schedule) affects the golf blogging....

9 of your top 12 picks are Asian. I'm guessing that the top 12 will contain less than 3! A few years ago your theory held water but the Americans, Europeans, Hispanics, etc. have risen to the challenge, much like PGA golfers have risen to Tiger's level.